As you may have noticed, there’s an election coming up, and by complete coincidence, Donald Trump is sending out bribe checks in hopes that at least a few voters will thank him by voting for Republicans.
And some of you have already been sending yours to Wonkette!
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Now, these aren’t the imaginary $5,000 bribe checks he’s been lie-promising if voters keep Republicans in control of Congress. These are much smaller payments of $500 to some people enrolled in Obamacare (mostly in red states, huh!) and $90 to some people enrolled in Medicare. But in a crucial difference from the mythical $5,000 Trump dividend — and the prior equally mythical $2000 “tariff dividend” and $5000 “DOGE dividend” — these little healthcare bribes are actually being paid out.
Democrats and good-government groups point out that, like so many other Trump diktats, the payments may not exactly be legal. Back in the Before Times, we recall, Congress had to approve that sort of thing. But so far, no lawsuits have been filed in an effort to stop the expenditures.
So far, it’s too early to see whether the MediBribes will do Republicans any good, or if people will just (as is happening!) split their bribes between Wonkette and the Democratic candidates of their choice. Trump and his party are already facing an electoral paddlin’, and the bribes may not reach enough voters or create enough positive buzz to change more than a few minds. Plus, there’s the little problem where the checks won’t even begin to offset the higher medical costs created by Trump’s Big Ugly Bill.
But never underestimate the ability of Trump voters to get excited when Dear Leader hands them a little bandaid to help them out after he’s cut off a limb or two. It’s only a flesh wound.
$500 Obamacare Bribes From Uncle Orange
The White House announced back in September — to little media attention, as far as we can tell — that it would be issuing $500 “Working Families Obamacare Refunds” to nearly ONE MILLION Americans, claiming that the money was from ill-gotten “overcharges” imposed by the source of all evil, the Biden administration. That number should already set off stink detectors, since around 19 million Americans have health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act, even after Trump’s efforts to enshittify it. The bribe checks are coming shortly after the administration kicked 760,000 Americans off Obamacare, insisting they were all doing “fraud,” although it’s likely many of those who were unpersoned actually qualified.
As NPR explains, the $500 checks to some ACA users are coming out of fees that insurance companies pay the government to participate in the ACA healthcare marketplace; the fees cover the government’s operating costs for the healthcare exchanges. That’s been part of how the ACA works from the beginning, but the White House announcement just plain lies about it, implying that Joe Biden had cheated people with “user fees” that drove up premiums while doing no good at all. You know, beyond covering the costs of running the program. Revenue from the fees has never before been thrown directly at taxpayers, but Donald Trump has unlimited power to ignore piffling little obstacles like the Constitution.
The $500 “refunds” will only go to users who got their insurance through the federal marketplace instead of the state exchanges, and only to people whose individual incomes are above $64,000 annually, too much to qualify for any premium subsidies at all. Many of those folks benefited from Biden’s expansion of premium subsidies that congressional Republicans refused to extend. When the subsidies expired, millions of Americans saw their premiums skyrocket. That includes people with incomes below the $64K cap; the reduced premium subsidies they still qualify for don’t come close to covering the full cost of the increases, and they won’t even get $500 from Trump’s bribe scheme.
The “refund” checks are accompanied by a letter from Donald Trump that reads more like a campaign ad or a Truth Social rant than an official document:
![Dear John Doe, For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you] With this Historic Action, my Administration is taking the surplus funds that accumulated from the Obamacare Premium Tax and issuing a one-time $500 REFUND to Americans who use the HealthCare.gov platform to purchase their health insurance, but who do not receive Taxpayer Subsidies to help pay for their Coverage. You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back. Healthcare Dollars should benefit Patients, not Insurance Companies or Government Bureaucrats. Since returning to office, I have fought to lower Healthcare Costs, increase Accountability, and Put Patients First. Through TrumpRx, we are delivering massive discounts on Household Prescription Drugs, and my Most-Favored-Nation Pricing Agreements have already saved Americans more than 1 Billion Dollars on much-needed Medications. We also secured an unprecedented 50 Billion Dollar investment to transform Rural Healthcare, expanded access to Health Saving Accounts for millions of people on Obamacare, and restored Price Transparency, all while rooting out the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse across our Healthcare System. I am proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare. May God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America] Sincerely, DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-6L_!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ac61249-2704-4821-8e4f-443adca146f9_937x631.jpeg "Dear John Doe, For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you] With this Historic Action, my Administration is taking the surplus funds that accumulated from the Obamacare Premium Tax and issuing a one-time $500 REFUND to Americans who use the HealthCare.gov platform to purchase their health insurance, but who do not receive Taxpayer Subsidies to help pay for their Coverage. You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back. Healthcare Dollars should benefit Patients, not Insurance Companies or Government Bureaucrats. Since returning to office, I have fought to lower Healthcare Costs, increase Accountability, and Put Patients First. Through TrumpRx, we are delivering massive discounts on Household Prescription Drugs, and my Most-Favored-Nation Pricing Agreements have already saved Americans more than 1 Billion Dollars on much-needed Medications. We also secured an unprecedented 50 Billion Dollar investment to transform Rural Healthcare, expanded access to Health Saving Accounts for millions of people on Obamacare, and restored Price Transparency, all while rooting out the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse across our Healthcare System. I am proud to return your money to you, and I will never stop fighting to put the American People FIRST, restore Affordability, protect your hard-earned money, and lower the Cost of Healthcare. May God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America] Sincerely, DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA")
Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University law school in St. Louis, Missouri, told NPR that the letter reeks of “electioneering” and almost certainly violates the Hatch Act, another silly relic Trump ignored long ago. She added that the letter “looks like a pretty desperate effort to, in essence, bribe the recipients of this letter to vote in gratitude to Trump in the upcoming midterm elections.”
But that’s not all the fuckery, heavens no! Remember, the “refunds” only go to ACA subscribers who buy insurance on the federal healthcare.gov exchange, not to folks in mostly blue states that set up their own exchanges. That means the bribe checks are mostly going out to people in red states that wanted nothing to do with Obamacare, although two blue states, Hawaii and Oregon, also use the federal exchange. And again, the vast majority of ACA subscribers in those red states won’t get a check at all.
Ellen Allen, a West Virginia woman profiled by NPR, is one of the Lucky Duckies who did get a MediBribe. She saw her monthly insurance premium go up by $1,967 every month when the Biden subsidies vanished. She wasn’t terribly impressed by the $500 check she received Monday, which she called a “political stunt.” She told NPR, “If they wanted to do something meaningful, they would work on affordable healthcare instead of just sending out checks every now and then.” Allen works for a small nonprofit, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, and plans to put the check in her health savings account, but also to keep fighting to reform our mess of a healthcare ‘system.’
$90 Medicare Bribes Most Won’t Even Notice
Like the Obamacare bribes, the $90 Medicare bribes will only go to a small share of beneficiaries, although of course the administration insists it’s a wonderful way to make healthcare “more affordable.” It will be sent by direct deposit to about “21 million people enrolled in Part B under traditional Medicare who don’t pay income-related premiums or receive premium assistance from Medicaid,” as healthcare think tank KFF explains.
That leaves a lot of Medicare enrollees out, particularly the 35 million Americans enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans, even though many of them also pay premiums for Part B. The bribes will also bypass another 12 million Americans who get assistance with their premiums because they’re disabled or have low incomes, presumably because they have it too easy.
And what a wonderful benefit it will be for the third of Medicare beneficiaries who get it! $90 is enough to fill up your car with Iran-war inflated gasoline, unless you have a diesel vehicle of course. And if you keep it to cover healthcare costs, it’ll cover the projected $79 increase in Part B premiums that will kick in come the new year, with change left over to buy two pencils for Christmas, but not two dolls, unless you get an off brand from the dollar-fifty store.
The MidtermCare bribes will be pulled — again, illegally — from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which Congress established in 2008 to “make improvements under the original fee-for-service program,” meaning hospital and medical coverage under Medicare Parts A and B. As KFF notes, the $2 billion fund has never been tapped, but the $90 payments should largely wipe it out. Hope Medicare doesn’t need any improvements anytime soon.
It’s not clear whether Trump’s MediBribes, however illegal or corrupt they are, will make any difference in the midterms. Trump has ranted about the payments in some of his campaign appearances, and on his fake Twitter, but they don’t seem to be generating any buzz yet. For all the naked politicking in the ACA “refund” letters, Trump only brags about what he’s done, and he isn’t on the ballot. Voters may or may not get the idea that they should reward Great Leader by voting for Republican House and Senate candidates. And since the Medicare payments are primarily going out by direct deposit, the seniors who do get them may or may not realize it’s supposed to be a bribe.
That may explain why there have been no lawsuits to stop this latest grifting by Trump. Pushing back on it might actually make the stupid wasteful spending a campaign issue, with Fox News railing against the mean old Democrats who want to keep Americans from getting their richly-deserved “refunds,” How Dare You!
And OPEN THREAD.
The AI Helps Trump And Vance Kick 760,000 Americans Off Obamacare For ‘Fraud’ That Might Not Exist
[NPR / Scripps News / ABC News / KFF]
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You know what all of this is a good argument for? Single payer healthcare.
Saw my oncologist today.
My PSA is still fractional, all the other numbers line up, and my prostate cancer looks to be still in complete remission. He said there is no need for any further follow-up, although I'll continue to see a urologist.
WHEW!!
When I think of what I've read, here and elsewhere, about how horrible some cancer treatment can be, I realize how easy I got off. My radiation therapy was utterly painless.
Dear body: Thank you for responding so nicely to treatment. I promise to be nicer to you in return. Less booze and pot, more exercise, don't slack on diet. I can't afford to use up any more chances.